You might notice that this post title is full of words that start with “B”.  Well, this week has been BUSY with a capital “B”.  As a result, I am finally getting around for an update post.

Last Sunday, we left our beach vacation oasis and returned to the real world.  This week was professionally a mixed bag of days used for leadership meetings, classroom setup/shopping with today being the official “teachers back to school” day.

The one big thing that I wanted this week to accomplish was to get back into a “normal” work week.  One that would be complete with planned healthy meals, consuming my pre-workout drink and post-workout protein, detoxing from the large amount of fancy coffee that I drank on vacation and HITTING MY WORKOUTS HARD!!!.

I have a goal coming up in 2 weeks that I can’t wait to unveil in another post later this weekend.  Anyway, in order to be the most successful at this goal event, I needed to catch up on my lost workouts that didn’t happen on vacation.  I planned an amazing weekly workout schedule with my trainer and was planning to end my summer break with 5 days of 5 workouts with my trainer with maybe a bonus Saturday HIIT workout.

Aannddd…I hit my workout hard Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday I was in my feelings but still worked hard.  Thursday morning I walked in stoked about my workout, but mentally stressed and depleted thinking about my upcoming classroom preparations for the new school year. My trainer knew how I was feeling and deviated from the daily workout on the board in favor of a custom workout that included some of my favorite exercises starting with my favorite DEADLIFTS!!

Like you guys do not even know how in love I am with deadlifts.  I am still lifting what is considered to be “light weight” in the overall scheme of things with my heaviest lifts being with the heaviest kettlebell in the gym (106 or 107 pounds, I can’t remember which)….the gold kettlebell at that.  So there I was warmed up with my stretches and 1000 meter row and ready to get my lift on.  The goal was 5 sets of 5 reps with a 3 second count in setting the kettlebell back on the floor.  Set 1 was fine, so I start set 2.  I lift up, pause 1, 2, 3, down.  Then lift up….and pain.  Seriously, just like that and that sudden.

Normally, if you feel a back strain on deadlifting its because your form was off and you were not lifting properly through your legs as you squeeze your glutes to protect the lower back.  I asked my trainer if my form was off and the answer was nope.  I hurt my back and didn’t do anything wrong executing an exercise that I have done hundreds of times before.

My trainer helped me stretch out my back and it felt better, not to bad.  We modified my workout, but I still felt strong and healthy enough to squeeze in some floor presses, TRX rows (If you unfamiliar with TRX check them out at Sculpt Your Arms with TRX – The training system that’s personalized for you.), step ups, goblet kettlebell squats and battle rope work. I finished my workout and went to work to move stuff into my classroom….big mistake.


While my injury started with the deadlift, moving desks, chairs, and carrying heavy boxes into my classroom finished me off.  By the time that I got home yesterday, I could not find relief standing, sitting, walking, nothing.  I stretched out several times, took some Advil and got some rest.  Today, I messaged my trainer with the update that my back was better than last night but still very sore and strained.  So, we made the wise decision to stretch and rest today.  Tomorrow I hope to go on a nice low impact walk with my daughter and I’m praying that my back will be strong enough for a modified workout Monday afternoon with my trainer.

Apparently my back missed the memo that this body has work to do and it needs to get with the program.